Page 23

Hazel

“I’ll talk to you soon, Chief,” I said as calmly as I could before hanging up.

I took several deep breaths before making my way out of the spare room, which I’d been using as an office now that Liam and Seth insisted I stay in their bed at night.

It had been where I’d sent my daily reports to Chief.

But despite telling him that I hadn’t had even a slight hint of a headache for days, he’d failed to schedule me for my patrols. That was why I gave him a call today.

Now I had a bone to pick with Seth. I marched down the stairs to where Seth was sitting on the couch, video game controller in hand. Liam was at his PC gaming station.

I cleared my throat.

“One second,” Seth said on autopilot.

I took another calming breath in but decided that now was not the time for calm. Calm had never been easy for me. That was why Mike and I made such a good team. Nothing riled him, ever, and everything affected me. And this was affecting me big time.

I cleared my throat again, but before he could tell me to wait another second, I went to stand between him and the screen. His team was losing badly anyway; it wasn’t like losing him would make a difference.

“What the fuck?”

“I should be asking you that question.”

There was a movement in my periphery, and I glanced over to see that Liam had formed a funnel with his ear to listen in. Well, he was about to get an earful, alright.

“What’s this about you telling Chief that I’m still getting headaches?”

He shrugged. “I wanted you to stay around a little longer. What’s the big deal?”

What the hell? He was acting like it was perfectly natural to fuck with someone’s livelihood just because he wanted to.

“What’s the big deal? This is my job! And you have no right to be going over my head and lying to my boss.” I knew I was a little bit louder than I should be... okay, a lot louder, but fuck it.

Liam had abandoned his computer and was now between us, his hand held out placatingly. “Hey, hey, let’s talk about this. I’m sure we’ll make things work. I think Seth means to say that we didn’t want you to go and we wanted to spend more time with you. He’s sorry for lying to your boss.”

Seth only grunted.

I knew Liam was trying to mediate, but it only made me more pissed that Seth wasn’t even trying in comparison. He wasn’t sorry at all. The only thing he was sorry about was me finding out.

Ugh! This was just like him. I really should’ve listened to my initial opinion of him that he was good as eye candy and maybe to scratch an itch, but nothing else. But silly me, I bought into the nice guy act and ended up falling in deep. Ugh! And this was why I didn’t do relationships.

Liam elbowed Seth. “Don’t be a dick.”

Seth deflated. “Fine. I didn’t know what else to do to get you to stay longer. I’m sorry.”

I huffed, realizing it was the best I was going to get out of him. “Fine, whatever, but I’m calling a cab to go home.” I didn’t have access to my cruiser or my grandad’s old beater Cadillac, which had been sitting in the garage when I’d arrived.

“Wait,” Liam said. “Why don’t I drive you over to your place to pick up your uniform and a few more changes of clothes? Then I can get you to your precinct for your shift and pick you up after. You can still stay with us.”

A part of me was tempted. So, so, so tempted to drag this little interlude out for as long as humanly possible.

But it was already ending on a sour note, and staying was only going to make things worse.

I wanted to be able to look back to this week in years to come and fantasize about it.

Besides, I don’t think my heart could handle any more of whatever the hell this was without giving in and falling from deep like to madly, irrefutably in love.

And Liam’s offer sounded awfully close to cohabitating. And that was not temporary or unserious.

I shook my head. “I had a great time here, and I’d like to remember it as that. And this was supposed to be a temporary thing and discreet. Remember?”

“Discreet?” Seth bristled. “Because of me.”

“What? I never said that,” I said, my voice going up in a defensive tone, even though I urged it not to.

“Discreet because if I disappeared with someone because of a work incident for a week and came back joined to the hip with them, it’s going to get talked about.

And I hate being the center of attention!

Just because you like it doesn’t mean everyone does. ”

“So what? People hook up at their work all the time. Some end up very happy. And technically, we don’t really work together. I work for Desmon and the EA. You work for the police force.”

How did I explain that, being who I was, the entire task force was going to give me hell if I ended up dating the wizard that stole my cruiser? Some people didn’t think I deserved my spot on the team, as it was.

“Listen, I told you from the get-go that I’m not looking for a relationship. Half the people at the precinct think I didn’t deserve the role Chief gave me. I don’t need more against me. It’s already going to be weird bumping into you on the job. Let’s not make it worse.”

“I see,” Seth bristled, standing and getting all up in my face. “Liam and I ain’t good enough for you to deal with discomfort.”

What the hell was this? This wasn’t the powerful, self-assured wizard I’d been getting to know.

“I don’t think that’s what she means,” Liam said, to which Seth only glared.

You know what, fuck this. I was trying to be nice about it, but he was putting me in a corner, and I didn’t appreciate it. If he wanted a fight, he got one.

“If you’re saying that the teasing is going to be exponentially worse because it’s you, then yes!

Yes, it is! What the fuck did you expect?

You come in purposefully, trying to irritate as many of us as possible.

You don’t take anything seriously. You don’t follow anyone else’s rules but your own.

You stole my fucking cruiser. Remember that?

Did you expect me to lie and tell you otherwise?

” My face was so heated I could swear it was bright red.

“Hey, let’s not fight,” Liam said.

“Not take anything seriously?” Seth scoffed.

“I take everything seriously. That’s why I’m good for the job; I get shit done.

The only ones who care about how professional I look doing it are idiots.

And it’s not my fault so many of you stuffy cops are so easy to rile up.

At least Hayes has a sense of humor. And in case you haven’t realized, the EA has completely different rules from the police, and half the time you see me, I’m not even there for the EA; I’m there for Desmon.

You know, the fucking dragon of Darlington.

He wants results. He doesn’t fucking care about your stupid little human rules and bullshit! ”

“Ah, great. I’m a stupid little human now!”

“I don’t think that’s what he means,” Liam said placatingly.

“Shut up!” Seth and I both yelled in unison.

I regretted the outburst the second it happened. I knew that logically Liam was right, but I was so freaking angry that I was latching onto anything to stay angry; call it a defense mechanism I’d learned from watching my parents fight.

Fuck! This shit was unacceptable. It was part of the reason why I didn’t do relationships. I’d never witnessed a healthy one before in my life. I had no business being here. I had to get out. Now.

So I did. I turned without a single word and marched my ass back up the stairs to pack my bag.